The best All-Star team ever? According to this method, that mantle belongs to the roster that represented the National League in 1966 — and it’s not hard to see why. Sandy Koufax started the game on the mound, to be relieved by Juan Marichal, Jim Bunning and Gaylord Perry — Hall of Famers, all. The starting outfield was outrageous: Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente. Ron Santo and Willie McCovey manned the infield corners. Along with ...

“He’s not just a baseball player in Japan; he’s like a deity unto himself,” said Reilly, a bond trader for a bank. “We’ve all followed him since our high school days. So whenever he comes to bat, everybody stops.”

Their everyday lives could not be much different. Team Matsui included a corrections officer, a television cameraman, a human resources manager, accountants, bond traders and a hairdresser.

Still, Matsui treated his teammates Sunday as if they were Derek Jeter and Jorge ...

Monday, July 20, 2015

The Mets had already been seeking an outfielder in the trade market. But their search could intensify if Michael Cuddyer’s balky left knee doesn’t respond well to what he called a last-ditch effort to manage the pain.

If it doesn’t work, Cuddyer will likely land on the disabled list.

The 36-year-old veteran left in the eighth inning of Sunday’s marathon 3-1 win over the Cardinals in 18 innings.

Once again, he felt pain stemming from the bone bruise in his left knee, which has plagued him ...

[St. Cloud batter Jake Thielman hit a ball which was] driven clear to the fence and hit a rabbit browsing in the long grass. The startled rabbit started for the diamond, touched second base, sped along the base line a few jumps ahead of Thielman, rounded third base on account of the fans on the side line, and dashed across the home plate with the local player hard on his heels.

“If we’d had another base to go,” said Thielman, “I would have had to tell the ...

My guess: The stalemate is going to continue, maybe right until the final days leading to the deadline. The buyers need a fuller picture of who exactly is available and how those pitchers are performing. The sellers, meanwhile, need the urgency of the deadline to spur action — and in some cases, more time to polish their goods.

I’m not talking about Hamels, who will return to his old self the moment he escapes the losing, angst-ridden environment in Philadelphia. But ...

If Cole Hamels made his final start for the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday, it will be a forgettable conclusion to a memorable career.

Hamels allowed five runs on eight hits and struck out one in just three innings in an 8-7 victory over the Marlins, which gave the Phillies their first series sweep since May. Hamels’ poor effort Sunday followed his July 10 start at AT&T Park in San Francisco, where he allowed a career-high nine runs in 3 1/3 ...

“You have a better chance of coming out and seeing him throw a one-hit shutout then you have him walking six guys and walking in some guys with the bases loaded,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “It was just a bad day.”
“I feel really well today, I feel outstanding today,” Cueto said through translator Tomas Vera. “But things happen. This is what happened. I don’t think [very often] in my career I’ve walked six batters in one game. It just happened. Things ...

Years later, Cowens, as a member of the Tigers, would face Farmer, then with the White Sox. Cowens had not forgotten about what had happened. On a routine grounder, Cowens ran straight for the pitchers mound. Cowens landed a few punches, even ripping Farmer’s nostrils in a bench-clearing brawl. The brawl was so violent, it led to charges being filed, potentially preventing Cowens from returning to Chicago until Farmer agreed to ...

With Canada and the U.S. tied 4-4 after nine innings, the game entered the Pan Ams’ tiebreaker twilight zone. As per the tournament’s unusual extra-inning rules, each team started the 10th with runners at first and second with none out, while hitting from any spot in the batting order.
As the terms of the tiebreak were announced, boos rained down from the sold-out Ajax crowd, who had just taken in an entertaining, see-saw battle between the baseball rivals.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

For the first time since the Padres started playing baseball in San Diego, they had a home game rained out in July. Sunday afternoon’s weather stopped the scheduled game between the Padres and Rockies in the top of the 5th inning (Colorado was leading 1-0).
...
The last rainout at Petco Park came on April 4 of 2006, a span of 820 home games.
This series we saw the first time a game in our town has ever even been DELAYED by weather in the month of July. The only other July delay in San Diego ...

Frank Robinson used to joke that if he knew it would be such a big deal to have 600 career home runs and 3,000 hits, he would have played a few more games.

Well, Frank, maybe you were right. It turns out that 586 career home runs and 2,943 hits, along with 1,812 runs batted in, Most Valuable Player awards in both leagues, a Triple Crown, five pennants and two World Series titles wasn’t enough.

“I’m really here to see everybody, but I thoroughly enjoy watching Otani play, whether he is in the lineup hitting third or if he’s pitching. He’s got electric stuff and exciting velocity, but he’s got to become more of a pitcher than a thrower,” Brown said of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters two-way star player.

“Fujinami I’ve seen in his two years a pro, where he’s been indecisive on the mound with not much poise, working really slow, and then I’ve seen him with a great ...

Sources told the Union-Tribune that the Padres and the Astros have held preliminary talks on starting pitchers, with right-handers Tyson Ross and Andrew Cashner believed to be among those mentioned. There are no indications of anything imminent, and one source said the two sides had not spoken on the subject since early this month.

Reds ace Johnny Cueto is the top trade target for the Astros, the Houston Chronicle reported late last month, not least because his impending free agency could make ...

If Richards is back to where he was last year, Houston may be in trouble.

“I think that one of the best-kept secrets is really how our rotation’s doing,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “Our rotation has given us a chance to win the lion’s share of starts we’ve had this year. The last couple of games are indicative of the way they threw in the first half.”

Alvarez is the only Pirates regular who has produced negative Wins Above Replacement (-0.4) — in part because of his defensive struggles. Pirates first basemen have combined for -1.4 WAR, ranking 29th in the majors.
On Friday, a routine groundball went under Alvarez’s glove for his 15th error of the season, the most by a first baseman since Prince Fielder committed 15 in 2011. By any measure, traditional or advanced, Alvarez ranks as the worst defensive first baseman in baseball this season.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Despite that ambivalence and the lineup studies, the industry as a whole has embraced the eighth-place pitcher to an unprecedented degree this season. According to the Baseball-Reference Play Index, only 861 games since 1914 have featured a starting pitcher in the second-to-last lineup spot. Almost 20 percent of those games have come in 2015. [...]

This season, though, there have been 162 games in which the pitcher batted eighth,1 putting us on pace to shatter the 2008 record of 222. Even more ...

While one AL executive suggested a week ago that the Phillies haven’t yet “bent” on their Hamels demands since Andy MacPhail joined their front office to lead them, two other executives, using similar terminology, now say the Phillies have seemed somewhat more “reasonable” in their recent trade talks, and sources suggest there’s word of some potential progress with at least the Dodgers and Rangers. Phillies scouts have been dispatched to check out multiple ...